red.
Lacking, above all else, clearness of conception, promptness and
firmness of decision, she was finally persuaded to encourage the
bigotry of Louis XIV. and his intolerance toward those who differed
from him. Hence, in 1685, she permitted that fearfully destructive
persecution of the Protestants, which caused over three hundred
thousand of France's most solid people to leave the country; and by
her fanaticism and false zeal, she caused the king to be a party to
that awful catastrophe.

"This one act of hers counterbalances nearly all her virtues, and we
remember her more as the murderess of thousands of innocents than as
the calm and virtuous governess. But we must remember the nature of
her advisers and the eternal policy of the Catholic Church, which
are ever identical with absolutism. To uphold the institutions and
opinions already established, was the one sentiment of the age;
innovation, progress, were destructive--Mme. de Maintenon became the
watchful guardian of royalty and the Church." Such is the verdict of
English opinion. M. Saint-Amand judges the affair differently:

"A woman as pious and reasonable as she was, animated always by the
noblest intentions, loving her country and always showing sympathy for
the poor people--not merely in words but in deeds as well--detesting
war and loving justice and peace, always moderate and irreproachable
in her conduct--such a woman cannot be the mischievous, crafty,
malicious, and vindictive bigot imagined by many writers; she did not
encourage such an act, nor would her nature permit to do so.... The
prayer she uttered every morning, best portrays the woman and her
role: 'Lord, grant me to gladden the king, to console him, to sadden
him when it must be for Thy glory. Cause me to hide from him nothing
which he ought to know through me, and which no one else would have
courage to tell him.' ... To Madame de Glapion she said: 'I would like
to die before the king; I would go to God; I would cast myself at the
foot of His throne; I would offer Him the desires of a soul that
He would have purified; I would pray Him to grant the king greater
enlightenment, more love for his people, more knowledge of the state
of the provinces, more aversion for the perfidy of the countries, more
horror of the ways in which his authority is abused: and God would
hear my prayers.'"

This pious woman was weary of life before her marriage, and but
changed the nature of her misery upon reachi